Carlos Carmelo Cardinal Vasconcellos Motta

Reader Sindey asked me to do a post on Cardinal Vasconcellos Motta. He also was so kind and sent me a heap of really nice photographs and a biography. So basically all I have to do is put the stuff online and say: "Thanks Sidney!"



Birth: July 16, 1890, Bom Jesus do Amparo, archdiocese of Mariana, Brazil. Son of João de Vasconcellos Teixeira da Motta, a deputy during the empire, and Francisca Josina dos Santos.



Education: Initial studies at Fazenda da Prata, in the parish of Taquaraçu, Caeté, Minas Gerais; Colégio Matosinhos, of the Marist Brothers, in Congonhas do Campo (humanities); in 1904, he entered the Minor Seminary of Mariana and stayed there for a brief period; studied at the Faculty of Law of Belo Horizonte, 1910-1911; studied at the Major Seminary of Mariana, Mariana, 1914-1918.



Priesthood: Ordained, June 20, 1918, Mariana, by Silvério Gomes Pimenta, archbishop of Mariana; celebrated his first mass in Taquaruçu, on July 7, 1918. Vicar coadjutor of Taquaruçu for eleven months; named chaplain of Asilo São Lums da Serra da Piedade; later, he was chaplain of Recolhimento das Macaúbas and worked in the parishes of Caeté and Sabará; and finally, he was named rector of Seminary of Belo Horizonte until 1932. Privy chamberlain of His Holiness, October 23, 1925.



Episcopate: Elected titular bishop of Algiza and appointed auxiliary of Diamantina, July 29, 1932. Consecrated, October 30, 1932, in the church of São José, Belo Horizont, by António dos Santos Cabral, bishop of Natal, assisted by Ranulfo da Silva Farias, bishop of Guaxupé, and by Antonio Colturato, O.F.M. Cap., bishop of Uberaba. Administrator of the diocese of Diamantina, 1933-1934. Promoted to the metropolitan see of São Luis do Maranhão, December 19, 1935. Promoted the creation of the sees of Caxias and Pinheiros; was administrator of the latter from 1940 until 1944. Transferred to the metropolitan see of São Paulo, August 13, 1944; he established more than one hundred new parishes.



Cardinalate: Created cardinal priest in the consistory of February 18, 1946; received the red hat and the title of S. Pancrazio, February 22, 1946. On March 18, 1946, he established the Paulista Faculty of Law, initial nucleus of the the Catholic University of São Paulo on September 2, 1946; in 1947, Pope Pius XII, granted it the rank of pontifical university. Presided over the 7th centennial celebrations of the Carmelite scapulary, Recife, July 6, 1951. First president of the Episcopal Conference of Bishops of Brazil, 1952-1958. Attended the First General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 25 to August 4, 1955. On March 2, 1956, he founded Rádio Nove de Julho, in commemoration of the 8oth birthday of Pope Pius XII. He personally selected the name of Brasilia for the new federal capital city and celebrated there the first mass on May 3, 1957. Administrator of the archdiocese of Aparecida since it establishment on April 19, 1958 until April, 1964. Participated in the conclave of 1958, which elected Pope John XXIII. Attended the Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965. Participated in the conclave of 1963, which elected Pope Paul VI. Transferred to the metropolitan see of Aparecida as its first archbishop, April 18, 1964; he built the National Shrine of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil. Lost the right to participate in the conclave by being older than eighty years, January 1, 1971. Cardinal protoprete, October 23, 1979.



Death: September 18, 1982, Aparecida. Buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Aparecida.